AUTOIMMUNE HEPATITIS TYPE-2 AND HEPATITIS-C VIRUS-INFECTION - STUDY OF HLA ANTIGENS

Background/Aims: Markers for hepatitis C virus are often detectable in patients suffering chronic hepatitis with liver-kidney microsomal typ e 1 antibodies. Several authors have suggested that two subsets of tho se patients can be defined: a) hepatitis C virus negative and b) hepat itis C virus positive. The aim of this work was to further analyze the possible genetic association, HLA class I and II, in these two groups of patients. Methods: HLA was analyzed in 49 patients. Class I was st udied using a standard lymphocytotoxicity test and in class II a rever se hybridization-based test for DRB1 typing and PCR-SSO for DQB1 typin g mere used. Sixty healthy Spanish subjects and 39 chronic hepatitis C subjects without anti-LKM1 antibodies were used as control groups for the ''a'' and ''b'' subsets, respectively. Results: No significant as sociation was found with class I specificities in either group. DQB1 t yping showed a very significant increase of DQ2 in the ''a'' group (93 .3% vs. 48%; RR = 15; p(c) = 0.0025), and DRB1 typing from the ''b'' g roup revealed a high association with DR7 (82.3% vs. 43.6%; RR = 6; p( c) = 0.0086). Conclusions: Our studies revealed a strong association w ith DQ2 for the ''a'' group and for the first time an extremely high a ssociation with DR7 antigen for the ''b'' subset. Hence it is possible to establish a different genetic profile in these two patient groups.